News: Collaborative Mobile Reference Software

Text Message Solutions for Library Reference Co-ops

Mosio's Text a Librarian now offers text messaging solutions for online reference co-ops.
Simple to Use Web-Based Mobile Reference Software Now Available to Multi-Library Collaborative Groups

San Francisco, CA – Mosio, an award winning mobile technologies company providing text messaging and mobile web solutions for businesses and organizations, today announced the launch of cooperative pricing and plans for its Text a Librarian text message reference software.

Built specifically for libraries on its easy-to-use, mobile carrier approved technology, Text a Librarian’s collaboration-friendly features enable virtual reference cooperatives to seamlessly integrate text messaging into their patron services.

“The ‘I got it’ function, question commenting and perma-linking features in Text a Librarian make collaboration between librarians simple. We’ve added a few elements to the backend of our technology to make it easy for multi-library virtual reference co-ops, backed by a dedicated support team when our customers have questions” says Noel Chandler, Co-Founder and CEO of Mosio.

“Text messaging is a personal form of communication. Many patrons often assume the librarian answering their text message question is at their branch. Text a Librarian’s cooperative solutions enable a librarian from any participating branch to maintain that personal touch by having access to pre-defined answer templates, auto-responders and quick links created by the patron’s library,” Chandler added.

Text a Librarian’s Cooperative Plans:
- Offer the same ease-of-use, secure web interface enabling libraries to get up and running quickly with little or no training.

- Include answer templates that can be created by each branch so any participating librarian can quickly respond to a particular branch’s frequently asked questions with minimal typing or searching.

- Enable each participating library to create their own auto-responders to let patrons know their question has been received or with additional branch-specific information, personalizing the experience.

- Are built on the existing Text a Librarian platform with slight modifications based on cooperative size, needs and goals.

- Let co-op managers run reports efficiently so they can see which library is getting the most use, what are the busiest times of the day and export transcripts for further analysis.